3 ms·

This was a difficult article to read, but I hope we don't lose the adverb. I hope we don't lose prepositions either but I have noticed a point of divergence be

This was a difficult article to read, but I hope we don't lose the adverb. I hope we don't lose prepositions either but I have noticed a point of divergence between British and American English relating to this. In American English it's common to say a couple weeks ago. In British English you would say: a couple of weeks ago. Or someone in the US might say write me, whereas in the UK you'd say write to me. I think this is a recent change in American English? Or am I completely wrong and this has always been part of American English?

danieltillett 10y ago
Or in Australian English where a couple of weeks ago becomes a cupala weeks ago.
- jdmichal 10y ago
  That's just eliding the 'f' sound to make it flow better. It's basically "a couple o' weeks ago". /eɪ kʌ.pl̩ ʌ wiks ʌ.go/ And yes, "ou", "o" and "a" all render to /ʌ/ in my dialect. Yay English!
blacksmith_tb 10y ago
My instinct is those are relatively recent, say in the last fifty years or so - but it's worth pointing out that no speaker of American English would be confused by "a couple of weeks ago". A counter example could be the way British English elides the definite article, like "when I was in university" or "she was in hospital for a month", which sounds strangely clipped to speakers of American English.
couldwejust 10y ago
"to" just doesn't make much sense. In a geometric sense, the writing isn't directed, the sending is. The writing is adressed, sure but towards doesn't fit, while it's correct to just adress someone. Just sending someone would be different. With writing, it's underspecified, because there is no "writing someone [down]" :) In german, write me and write to me also work both, but these are the different grammatical cases dativ and akusativ. There are only four and I'm guessing here. They require the different forms "mir" or "[an] mich". These cases are called the same in english, correct me if I'm wrong.

danieltillett 10y ago

Or in Australian English where a couple of weeks ago becomes a cupala weeks ago.

jdmichal 10y ago
That's just eliding the 'f' sound to make it flow better. It's basically "a couple o' weeks ago". /eɪ kʌ.pl̩ ʌ wiks ʌ.go/ And yes, "ou", "o" and "a" all render to /ʌ/ in my dialect. Yay English!

blacksmith_tb 10y ago

My instinct is those are relatively recent, say in the last fifty years or so - but it's worth pointing out that no speaker of American English would be confused by "a couple of weeks ago". A counter example could be the way British English elides the definite article, like "when I was in university" or "she was in hospital for a month", which sounds strangely clipped to speakers of American English.

couldwejust 10y ago

"to" just doesn't make much sense. In a geometric sense, the writing isn't directed, the sending is. The writing is adressed, sure but towards doesn't fit, while it's correct to just adress someone. Just sending someone would be different. With writing, it's underspecified, because there is no "writing someone [down]" :) In german, write me and write to me also work both, but these are the different grammatical cases dativ and akusativ. There are only four and I'm guessing here. They require the different forms "mir" or "[an] mich". These cases are called the same in english, correct me if I'm wrong.